Fighting Proposed Programme Closure(s)

We are under the general impression that the closing down of programmes of study in universities is a consequence of drastic budget cuts. Typically, we hear of smaller programmes being cut or pressured into performing in a particular strategic way. You know the story, it hovers over us here in BBSH in various incarnations. Try this programme cut for size: Middlesex University is trying to cut its philosophy programme. Let me try that again for anyone not involved in the humanities and social sciences. Middlesex is trying to drop its highly successful and internationally renown philosophy programme even though undergraduate and postgraduate enrollments are high and research output by both postgraduate and tenured staff is also high.

Such a cut has little to do with some of the positions that are usually forwarded for the threatened closure of programmes of study. Ordinarily it falls to reduced enrollments, lack of industry partner financial support, or the like. But like false reductive arguments everywhere, there are always more options than what are presented by senior management. Indeed, we often box ourselves into false dichotomies when we face pressures from 'strategic enhancing mechanisms designed to align our school priorities with university/sector-wide optimisation delivery systems to value-add to our customer base and play nice with the ARC mob'. Yes, I made that stuff up, just like any other good exponent of weasel words would.

The logic inherent in cutting a small program is just as faulty as the logic seeking to cut out a large and prestigious one. Perhaps a closer look is needed at the skills fostered by the discipline itself rather than the generation of dollars. I fail to see how a programme should be cut because of numbers. I'm not sure who lost that memo about quality vs quantity but if you look a little more closely at both school and university policies on graduate attributes and the obligations we have as a HE institution, then the argument from quantity is a weak one, even under our current business model approach to HE.

But back to the shenanigans at Middlesex. Management at Middlesex are closing down all programmes in philosophy including the internationally renown MA and PhD degrees. This will also mean the closure of the Centre for Research in European Philosophy which is the highest ranking RAE department at the university. If you would like to find out more about this proposed closure and lend a pen to put an end to the proposal for closure of philosophy at Middlesex, please follow the links below. Scroll down the Save Middlesex Philosophy link to 'Write to protest against the closure decision'. Close to 12,000 have signed the petition and they have a Facebook page too, with members numbering at 9,500 as of this posting.

This is no time to be complacent or to think that Middlesex UK has little to do with Ballarat Australia. Signing online petitions and demonstrating in an articulate and respectful manner can effect changes. Just two years ago I was involved in the petitioning to save the biblical studies programme at the University of Sheffield - a department at the forefront of progressive and critical engagements in biblical studies, with strong undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of study, big-name draw card academics and stellar research outputs. The petitioning saved the department. Whilst it is not always appropriate to comment on these matters in a public forum (re matters of policy and confidentiality), it is always prudent to be aware of changes in HE overseas, and to respond to them. Here's hoping others might come to our aid and lift their pens when we rally against the closure of programmes of study, large or small.

Times Higher Education article on the proposed Middlesex closure May 1, and the student protest on May 5. Find out more about the Save Middlesex Philosophy project here.